A New Journey
by Nate-Volva
Summary: A young boy has been taken from leaf village after being sentenced to death by it's people. Now he is being raised by the Hokage's grandson, who is believed to be a missing nin by the people of Konoha. This story has different characters than Naruto.
1. Prologue

_**Prologue: The Hero or Destroyer**_

"Hokage, the votes are all in. It seems the city all believes that the boy should be sentenced to death. We now await your final decision on what we should do with him." An ANBU who stood three feet behind the Hokage had suddenly appeared after speaking the words.

"I will not allow this boy to be put to death. He should not be punished for actions he has yet to commit." The Hokage's face stayed steady as he felt the ANBU tense as he heard his words.

"Hokage, surely you can't believe we can trust this boy with what we know about him." The Hokage closed his eyes as he realized that the ANBU's mind would not be changed. The Hokage could not blame him though, he doubted anyone else in the whole world but he thought the risk of letting the boy live his own life was worth taking.

"I will do what must be done. Alert the city of my decision, and in ten minutes I will stand before them with the results of what has happened" The ANBU relaxed a bit and then disappeared into thin air as quietly as he had appeared.

The Hokage opened his eyes once again and looked out the giant window that showed the city that was his responsibility. Sighing out loud, the Hokage went to stand closer to the window so that he could now see the people who were walking it's streets.

"I have protected them from any danger that has posed a threat to them, and now I am forced to protect them from their selves." Motioning with a finger, a young man suddenly appeared in the room holding a bundle of rags.

The Hokage smiled as he turned to face the young man who stood in front of him. The boy looked exactly like the Hokage had when he had been his age.

"Grandson, it seems that you have done the first part of your mission well. Now I must ask you to flee the city and become a missing nin in everyone's eyes but my own." The young man's face remained calm as he heard the words his grandfather said.

"Grandfather, do you truly believe the boy will become our savior instead of our destroyer?" The young man kept his face calm as he spoke his words, not even flinching as he heard what his entire village would believe about him before the night was over.

"I believe that he should be given the chance to live the life that he was given. I also believe that with your guidance, he will indeed become our savior. Now, it is time for you to leave the city and begin your quest with the boy."

Feeling his doubts leave his mind, the young man bowed his head, and then disappeared from the room.

"I'm sorry that I have to force you to leave the city Misaru, but I know that you are the only one who can raise this boy to become our savior." Walking out the door, the Hokage slowly decided in his mind how he would tell the city of Misaru's "betrayal" and kidnapping of the boy.


	2. The Rival

_**Chapter 1: The Rival**_

::6 Years Later::

Smiling as he dodged past several well placed punches, Misaru slammed one of his fists into Hiraku as hard as he could. Watching as blood ran down the young boy's face where he had just punched, Misaru calmly removed his hand just in time to see the boy's body erupt in a burst of smoke and suddenly become nothing more than a log.

"Not bad Hiraku, but not nearly good enough if your trying to defeat someone who is as good as I am." Picking a kunai out of his belt, Misaru waited one more second, and then threw it into some nearby bushes. He smiled as he saw the kunai blade fly less than an inch above Hiraku's forehead.

"Man, you beat me again Misaru. I don't think I'll ever be as good as you are." Misaru's calm face once again betrayed a small smile as he realized the irony in Hiraku's words. The boy had no idea that he was most likely going to become the most powerful ninja ever.

"Don't worry Hiraku; I'm positive you'll become an incredible shinobi." Misaru decided to leave out the part on how he hoped Hiraku would become a savior and not a destroyer.

"So what are we going to do now Misaru?" Hiraku placed his hands in his pocket's as he walked closer to his teacher.

"Well, I think we've done enough training for the morning, and so now it's time to go get some lunch." Hiraku's face broke into a wide smile as he heard the word lunch.

"Great, I'm REALLY hungry." Misaru sighed out loud as he heard Hiraku say his favorite fraise. He never had been able to decide how such a small boy could eat so much.

"Well, let's go into the town and see what they have." Seeing Hiraku nodding in agreement, the pair of ninjas walked over to the forest path and began to follow it until it finally brought them to the city's entrance gates. Misaru winced as he saw that two fire ninja chuunin stood guarding the entrance.

"_Looks like grandfather has sent notice all over that I have become an S-Class missing-nin. Two chuunin shouldn't be any trouble at all, but if there are jounin in the city, things could get dicey." _Carefully going over his thoughts, Misaru decided that genjutsu would be the best way to get past these guards.

Making rapid hand seals, Misaru suddenly formed a powerful genjutsu that would lure the guards into thinking that he and Hiraku were nothing more than ordinary city-goers. Feeling relief swell over him as he saw his genjutsu had worked; Misaru winked at Hiraku and then motioned for the boy to continue on through the gates.

"I never thought an S-Class Missing-nin would be so easily fooled." Misaru pushed Hiraku so hard that he flew twenty yards, and then dropped to the ground to avoid two well placed kunai. Looking up once again, Misaru cursed as he noticed that the two guards appearance had changed drastically, revealing the faces of two leaf jounin that he had gone to school with.

"I can't believe you didn't realize that we had used a genjutsu on you earlier Misaru. I think you've begun to lose your edge." The jounin that had spoken earlier stepped forward with a wicked smile on his face.

"Misaru, you didn't think I would not hunt you down, did you? After all, I've been your chief rival ever since we were boys, this is just a great way for me to show everyone that I am and always have been the best between the two of us." Misaru slowly rose from the ground and got to his feet. He looked at the shinobi in front of him with a small smile on his face.

"So Sensui, you believe that you are better than me? Then why must you rely on another ninja to help you? Are you so afraid of me that you need help to defeat me?" Misaru saw his words had the effect he had wanted them to have on Sensui, and slowly the man's honor got the best of him. He motioned for his partner to back up and then he himself stepped forward.

"This will be a one on one fight to the death Misaru. I trust you understand what I will do to the boy if you die?" Misaru could only imagine the torture Sensui would inflict upon Hiraku if he ever got a chance too. Misaru silently vowed to himself that he would never allow that to happen, even if it cost him his own life.

"Are you just going to stand and talk all day Sensui, or are we going to begin this fight?" Misaru suddenly realized his mistake as he saw that Sensui's partner was no longer standing where he had been just a few moments ago. Turning around as fast as he could, Misaru saw that the other jounin now had a kunai placed gently on Hiraku's neck, ready to kill the boy in less than an instant.

"Oh, and there is one other term Misaru. If you do somehow manage to defeat me, then my partner will still kill the boy. My first priority is to accomplish my mission after all, the fact that I get to fight you is just a bonus." Misaru then had to forget all about Hiraku's trouble as Sensui began to charge at him.


	3. The Message

**_Chapter 2: The Message_**

OOC – I like to use Japanese names for the jutsus, but will try to always add a meaningful English name (or the real one if it has been given) next to it in parenthesis.

Watching in what felt like slow motion, Misaru managed to barely jump out of the way in time to dodge Sensui's punch. Moving his hands as quickly as he could, Misaru managed to finish forming the jutsu just as Sensui began to charge at him again.

"Katon Karyuu Endan no Jutsu (Fire Dragon Flame Blast)!" Misaru breathed out a gigantic stream of fire that took on the shape of a dragon. Sensui saw the dragon almost too late, and managed to dodge it well enough that it only burned some of his left arm.

Misaru used the instant that it took Sensui to recover from his last technique to disappear and reappear behind Sensui's partner and use another jutsu on him.

"Kanashibari no Jutsu (Body Freeze Skill)!" Misaru sighed out loud as he saw that his technique had worked and that the ninja in front of him was now unable to move. Moving Hiraku so that he stood behind him, Misaru took out a kunai and placed it at Sensui's partner's throat.

"Sensui, you now have two options. You can take your partner and go back to Konoha, or you can attack me again and watch as I kill your partner and then move onto you." Misaru sighed out loud as Sensui gave him a defiant smile. It was clear that although Sensui regarded his partner as a close friend, he would not fail his mission even if it meant his partner's life.

"Let me tell you one more thing before you make your decision Sensui. I'm going to give you a message to take back to Hokage for me, and I'll give you my word that the message is much more important than you killing the boy." Misaru watched as he saw Sensui make up his mind.

"Spare my partner's life, and I will take your message back to the Hokage for you." Misaru let himself feel relieved, and then took a scroll out from his backpack. Tossing the scroll to Sensui, Misaru slowly removed his kunai from Sensui's partner's neck.

"Sensui, you'll begin your journey back to Konoha now. Once you get most of the way there, I'll release the jutsu on your partner and he'll make his way back." Seeing Sensui nod in agreement, Misaru watched as his rival departed silently.

"_The next time we meet I'll have to finish you off Sensui. I can't have a powerful shinobi such as you hunting me and Hiraku constantly."_ Standing with Hiraku in the clearing for a couple hours, Misaru finally let himself breathe easy and motioned for Hiraku to come closer to him.

"Hiraku, I want you to run a mile north, and then go west for a mile, and then go down south for another fifteen miles. I'll meet up with you after you do all of that." Misaru whispered the words into Hiraku's ear so the ninja next to him would not hear them. He hoped that by having Hiraku take such a misleading path to start with, that Sensui's partner would give the leaf shinobi's incorrect information about their travels.

Giving Hiraku an half hour to complete his journey, Misaru launch off in the same direction at a much faster speed, letting the Kanashibari no Jutsu (Body Freeze Skill) slowly wear off of Sensui's partner as he did.

After another ten minute's, Misaru finally caught up to Hiraku who had traveled to the exact spot he had told the boy to go to.

"Hiraku, it's time that we left fire country and headed out to a place where we will be harder to find. I believe that you are old enough now so that you can handle any of the challenges those countries will give you." Hiraku nodded his head in agreement with Misaru's words and then looked up into his instructor's eyes.

"Misaru, what did the message that you gave to the mean older ninja say?" Misaru was tempted to tell Hiraku a lie and make up something that would sound kinder to the young boy's mind, but decided it was best for Hiraku to start getting used to the life that they would be living for now on.

"The message told the Hokage that I was sick of always being hunted down by the leaf shinobi, and that I would not hesitate to kill the next one that crossed my path." Watching as Hiraku went wide eyed; Misaru turned from the boy and started on the path that would lead the pair of ninja's to wind country.


	4. Advanced Bloodline

**_Chapter 3: Advanced Bloodline_**

::1 Year Later::

"Hiraku, come outside please." Hiraku slowly stepped outside of the hut he and Misaru shared when he heard his teacher's voice. He had been hoping to get by with having a day to play with all the younger shinobi in the village, but it seemed that Misaru was going to make him train instead. Sometimes he couldn't believe how unfair it was that Misaru was making him train so hard when all the other children were just now beginning to start entering the academy.

"Hiraku, today I'm going to begin teaching you about advanced bloodlines, a very special feature that certain shinobi's posses." Hiraku gave Misaru one of his "I'm lost" looks, and so the shinobi decided to explain to Hiraku what an Advanced Bloodline was.

"An advanced bloodline is a special ability that certain shinobi inherit from their ancestors. For instance, say that your father or mother had this bloodline within them, and then it would in turn be passed onto you. In a similar sense, if you had any children, this bloodline would also be passed onto them." Hiraku's face began to brighten up as he heard this.

"Misaru, do I have an advanced bloodline ability?" Misaru's smile quickly faded. He quickly ran over in his head what he should tell the young boy.

"In a sense you might, but I won't tell you more than that for now. Anyway, let me finish what I was saying about advanced bloodlines. With each bloodline, they not only get a special ability, but they typically also get jutsu's that are unique to the special ability. For example, a clan of Konoha called Hyuuga, not only gets the ability to use the Byakugan, but they can also use Jutsu's unique to it such as Hakke Shou Kaiten (Heavenly Spin) and Hakke Rokujuu Yonshou (Divination Field, 64 Strikes)." Hiraku quickly memorized that information that his teacher had given him, and then quickly thought up an excuse to get out of training for the day.

"So Misaru, sense I've educated my mind so much today with the information that you've given me, can we skip training today?" Misaru gave Hiraku a slight smile as he began walking toward the section of the desert that the he trained Hiraku at.

"Hiraku, I guarantee that today's training practice will be one that you'll enjoy greatly." And with that he continued walking towards the spot in the desert he and Hiraku trained at. Today he would force Hiraku to activate his own advanced bloodline, and see what would happen to the boy when he did.

The pair of ninja's quickly arrived at the training spot to find two ninja's already there. One was appeared to be a few years older than Misaru, and the other was probably around 13 years old. Smiling at the other adult shinobi, Misaru gave him a slight nod.

"Hiraku, today I'm going to have you train with this boy here all day. His name is Andain, and he is an excellent fighter among genin standards. Anyway good luck, I'm going to leave along with Andain's instructor to go and catch up with a few of the other sand Jounin. Good luck today Hiraku!" And with that Misaru and the other Jounin quickly disappeared from sight.

Hiraku barely had enough time to turn around before he felt a fist connect with his right cheek. Feeling his body fly across the air, Hiraku painfully landed in a hard mound of sand. Getting up to his feet, Hiraku looked wide eyed at the maniacal expression that was on the other boy's face.

"Today I'm going to win my master's respect by killing you!" The boy suddenly became a blur as he charged at Hiraku with an insane amount of speed. In the next instant the boy had sent a series of punches into Hiraku's stomach, and then finished off his assault by sending an uppercut into the bottom of Hiraku's jaw which sent the small boy flying into the air once again.

"You're a pathetic excuse for a shinobi. I can't believe that our master's would even pair the two of us together." Hiraku could feel his anger begin to boil as he once again rose to his feet. He silently promised to himself that he would make this boy pay for all that he had done to him.

This time Hiraku didn't wait for the older boy to charge at him, and quickly began to make hand seals. Finishing the last hand seal at the same time as the other boy began to charge at him again, Hiraku quickly used his jutsu.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Grand Fireball Skill)!" Hiraku sent a stream of fire from his mouth directly at his opponent as he said the words.

His opponent only smiled as he saw the flames, and in response to the attack, began to form some hand seals of his own. Placing the charka he had gathered and formed from the hand seals into his arm, Hiraku's opponent sent a punch that created enough wind to divert the flames right before they would have burned him alive.

"A low level attack like that will never work on someone like me." Before Hiraku even had a chance to blink, his opponent was behind him and sending a powerful kick into Hiraku's spine. Flying through the air as the kick connected, Hiraku felt himself lose his breath as he once again landed face first in the sand.

"Beg for mercy and maybe I'll spare you life boy." Hiraku could feel his rage begin to consume his entire mind. At the moment begging for mercy was the last thing on Hiraku's mind, all that mattered to the boy now was defeating Andain.

"I'll make you pay for all that you have done to me!" Hiraku said the words as he slowly rose to his feet with his eyes closed. Opening his eyes once again, Hiraku revealed that his eyes had changed to a red color with two dots rotating around within them.

"You think that some stupid eye trick will be enough to stop me? I think it is time that I really start hurting you." And with that the boy began to once again charge at Hiraku.

Hiraku suddenly saw Andain's movement's like never before. They seemed to be moving much slower than they had been just moment's ago, and now he could almost predict where the boy was going to go.

Ducking close to the ground just as Andain reached him, Hiraku kicked Andain's legs out from under him, and then jumped into the air. Hiraku then landed on top of Andain with his knee in the older boy's stomach.

Yelling in pain, Andain spat up blood and rolled over grasping his stomach as soon as Hiraku stood up from on top of him.

"Now leave me alone before I hurt you even more." And with those words Hiraku deactivated the Sharingan and began to walk away from Andain.


	5. Preparing for the Return

**_Chapter 4: Preparing for the Return_**

::1 Year Later::

* * *

Summary of the Past Year: Hiraku and Misaru moved onto Hidden Stone Village 4 months ago, so that they could once again avoid Leaf Village's eyes and ears. In the past year Misaru has trained Hiraku incredibly hard, forcing the young boy to improve at an astounding rate.

* * *

"Hiraku, I've been thinking lately, and we need to take your training up to the next level." Hiraku nearly dropped his bowl of ramen as he heard what Misaru said.

"What are you talking about Misaru? I've been working insanely hard over the past year. You yourself said that you had rarely seen one my age improve so much!" Misaru sighed out loud as he heard Hiraku's words. He had expected the boy to react to his words this way, but he had to get Hiraku much stronger in a very short period of time.

"Listen Hiraku, I want to return to leaf village soon, and at your current level you would only hold me back. I have to get you to be much stronger, and to do that we need to step up your training. Starting today, we begin to go over all the basics again, but this time we will add a few twists to them." Hiraku's face once again gave Misaru a sour look.

"Also, you might not want to eat so much before we train today." Taking the bowl of ramen from a protesting Hiraku, Misaru tossed it into the sink, and then made Hiraku join him outside on the training field.

"Okay Hiraku, put these on." Misaru pulled out some ordinary looking ankle and wrist weights from a bag that he had on the ground, and then handed them to Hiraku. Misaru allowed himself to have a corrupt smile on his face as he saw Hiraku be pulled to the ground by the weights the moment they were dropped into his hands.

"WOA! Misaru, how much do these things weigh?!" Struggling, Hiraku managed to place the weights on himself as he sat down on the ground.

"I'd say around seventy-five pounds for each of the ankle weights, and about forty pounds for each of the arm weights. Pretty light compared to the weights I'm going to make you wear next week." Once again Misaru gave Hiraku a wicked smile as he said his words.

"You must be kidding me Misaru!" The boy tried to push himself up to his feet, but kept on being pulled over by the weights every time he got up to his knees.

"Nope, and you probably should know that in two weeks we will start to relearn our basic jutsu training exercises by having you do them with the weights on." Hiraku's mind started to go numb as he thought of doing tree climbing and water walking with the insanely heavy weights he was wearing now.

"Well see you later Hiraku, I'll be back in about eight hours to get you. By the way, don't try to take the weights off; I put a jutsu on them so they won't come off for a week." Giving Hiraku another wicked smile, Misaru walked away in the direction of the city.

For the next twenty minutes Hiraku struggled with getting to his feet, and then once he got to his feet staying on them without falling over.

"MISARU I HATE YOU!" Hiraku screamed this phrase over and over again over the next eight hours as he forced himself to begin doing regular exercises with the weights on. Hiraku found the surprisingly the longer he wore the weights, the easier it was for him to move around in them.

"Well, I'm back Hiraku! Did you have a good day of training?" Misaru's jaw then dropped as he watched Hiraku run towards him at half the speed he normally did without the weights.

"_That boy is wearing near four times his own weight in weights, and he is able to run around in them at about half his normal speed after only one day!" _Misaru commanded himself to regain his posture, and then he gave Hiraku a pat on the head.

"Well, that is enough training for the day Hiraku. It's time for us to go back to our apartment and get some sleep. You've got a big day tomorrow, since I've decided to shorten the week you'd have in those weights to only one more day. Also, you might want to prepare yourself for the chakra training that will take place in for more days." Misaru smiled as he heard Hiraku start to yell at him.

"_This is going to be a very fun year of training."_


	6. Leaf Village's Welcome

**_Chapter 5: Leaf Village's Welcome_**

::1 Year Later::

Note: Custom Jutsu will always just have an English name.

* * *

Summary: Misaru has spent the last year completing Hiraku's training and preparing him for their return to Konoha. It's now time for the due to see how the people of Konoha will great them.

* * *

"Misaru, how much longer until we get to Konoha?" Misaru sighed as he heard Hiraku ask them same question for the thousandth time that week.

"We should get there within the hour. I wouldn't be so anxious if I were you though, we are most likely going to have to do a great deal of fighting to get into the village." Misaru then wished he hadn't said those words as he saw a big smile cross Hiraku's face.

"Great, I haven't gotten to fight against a real opponent in about a month!" Hiraku then noticed that Misaru was starting to give him a serious look.

"Hiraku, I want you to be careful so that you don't kill a single person. We want to appear as peaceful as possible when we enter the hidden village." Misaru's face remained focused on Hiraku's until he could tell that the boy wouldn't kill anyone.

"You know that is my least favorite part of being a shinobi Misaru. Don't worry, I only ever kill as a last resort." Misaru silently praised whoever had given him this boy that they hadn't made him into a cold blooded killed. While it was true that Hiraku could kill if the need arose, Misaru was certain that the boy wouldn't unless he was forced to.

After another ten minutes of traveling through the forest, the pair came across what Misaru had feared. In front of them stood a team of four chuunin ninjas that were on patrol, and they clearly had recognized who they were.

"Quickly go to leaf village and alert the ANBU of these two's presence!" One of the chuunin raced of into the forest as the remaining three prepared themselves for a fight.

Cursing under his breath, Misaru turned to see that Hiraku was already in his fighting stance. Following the boy's example, Misaru turned to the chuunin and gave them a small smile.

"Leave us alone, we have no wish to fight against you three." Misaru at once saw that his word's would have no effect as the three chuunin charged at them in a wild fit of rage.

"Misaru let me handle them." Misaru looked over to see that Hiraku had activated his sharingan.

"As you wish, just don't get hurt." Stepping back several yards, Misaru watched as Hiraku dodged the first attacks the group of chuunin sent at him.

"You are wasting your movements. I can see you all as if you are moving in slow motion." The three finally noticed what the boy had in his eyes. Hiraku watched as the three took an instant to stare in shock at Hiraku's eyes.

Using the instant that the three were distracted, Hiraku formed the hand seals for one of his special jutsu. In the next instant Hiraku made the last hand seal and spoke its name.

"Flaming Cage!" The group was suddenly surrounded by a giant "cage" that was made of flames. Smiling, the leader formed several hand seals of his own and then blew a stream of water out of his mouth and at the bars of the cage. His face clearly showed his shock as he saw the water evaporated before it even touched the bars.

"Come on Misaru, that cage won't disappear for another twenty minutes." Taking an instant to admire the perfect way Hiraku had handled the situation, Misaru followed his pupil as the dashed at full speed for Hidden Leaf Village.

"How long do you think it'll take for us to get there at this speed?" Running over what he remembered of the territory in his head, Misaru quickly estimated a time.

"Ten minutes if we aren't interrupted on the way." Hiraku sighed out loud as he realized there was very little chance that they wouldn't end up facing several ANBU on their way to the village.

Hiraku's fears came to life eight minutes later as four ANBU burst out in front of the pair. To Hiraku's surprise, Misaru seemed to be almost relived.

"Hiraku, you take two and I'll take two. Remember, no killing unless they'll kill you otherwise." Nodding his head, Misaru watched as the boy once again activated his sharingan, getting one of the ANBU to tense slightly.

In the next instant the group of six was engaged in an all out taijutsu assault. Misaru was managing to dodge and attack his pair, but Hiraku on the other hand was only dodging about half of the attacks sent at him, and rarely landing a punch of his own.

Hiraku then felt a powerful uppercut slam into the bottom of the jaw, and he was sent flying through the air only to land painfully into a giant tree. Feeling his rage build, Hiraku slowly rose to his feet and gave the pair of ANBU who were fighting him a wicked smile.

"I guess I'm going to have to get serious with the two of you." Hiraku then reached down to his legs and undid a pair of ankle weights, and then turned to his wrists and did the same. He smiled as he saw the ANBU jump a little as they watched the weights hit the ground and cause small craters.

"I don't really care if Misaru told me not to take them off; I'm getting really tired of getting pummeled by the pair of you. I hope you two won't mind being covered in bruises." Hiraku then charged at the pair of ANBU with an incredible amount of speed, sending each of his fists into their stomachs at the same time, causing the pair of ANBU to fly through the air.

Feeling himself smile widely at just having defeated two ANBU, Hiraku turned around to see that Misaru had long since defeated his pair of ANBU and had been waiting for Hiraku to finish up.

"You could have helped me out you know." Hiraku said as he quickly put his weights back on.

"Yes, but then I would be taking away from that great learning opportunity you just had." Misaru smiled as he watched the boy finish putting his weights on.

"Yeah right, you were just lazy." With that the duo sped through the trees once again. After two more minutes they arrived at the entrance of Hidden Leaf village to see that the Hokage was already waiting for them at the gates.

"It is nice to see you again grandson. I'm sorry it had to be under these conditions though..." And, in the next instant both Hiraku and Misaru blacked out from a vicious mind assault jutsu the Hokage performed before either of them could react.


	7. Painful Goodbyes

**_Chapter 6: Painful Goodbyes_**

Hiraku slowly opened his eyes to reveal Misaru and the Hokage talking amongst themselves. Wondering what they were talking about, Hiraku decided to pretend like he was sleeping so that he could eavesdrop on them.

"Don't worry Misaru, I can clear your name with ease. As for the boy it will only take a few months and then the villagers will get used to him. Besides, it is clear that you have taught him well enough that he can defend himself against any of the villagers that would attack him." Misaru's face still showed that he did not like what the Hokage was telling him.

"I know some of these people far to well, and besides the fact that they will wait until Hiraku is ill prepared to fight them, they will use whatever cheap method they can to kill him. Just make a formal announcement that you are placing him under the village's protection. Then no one would dare to attack him!" Hiraku felt happy as he heard Misaru battle for his safety. It seemed that the older ninja truly did care about him.

"Misaru, we both know that is one action that I can't take. It is bad enough that I am allowing the boy to live in the village, but to place him under its protection will drive the village into a revolt. That is something I will NEVER be a part of." Misaru grew quiet as he heard the Hokage's words.

"At least allow me to protect him..." Misaru was interrupted by the Hokage before he could finish his words.

"No, you can't risk the villagers seeing you not working your hardest to redeem yourself. From now on I want you to spend as little time as possible with the boy, and as much time as you can doing missions for the village." Hiraku thought that Misaru was going to be quiet now, but suddenly the Jounin's face was contorted with rage.

"YOU asked me to raise the boy and train him. Did you not think that doing all of that would make me grow to care for the boy as if he was my own son? I don't care what the villagers think about me, I WILL be allowed to be with the boy as much as I want, and I WILL be allowed to protect him!" Misaru's sudden outburst startled both the Hokage and Hiraku.

"Then you would prove nothing more than the fact that you are a fool. Protecting the boy would not only draw more attention to the two of you, but it would also make it easier for both of your enemies to team up and attack you in a force. I care about both of you too much to allow that to happen to either one of you." With that the Hokage turned and left Misaru and Hiraku alone in the room.

"Misaru, I'm going to miss you." Misaru slowly turned with a shocked look on his face as he realized the boy had heard him and the Hokage talking.

"You have to be strong Hiraku. You're a member of Konoha now, and that means you have to protect the village at all costs. I expect you to work harder than you ever have for now on." Misaru felt his heart sink as he watched the boy break down into tears.

"Don't worry Misaru, I'll protect the village at all costs!" Hiraku felt his sadness deepen as he watched several tears fall down Misaru's face.

"Well then I leave you Hiraku. Don't worry, I'll see you again in a few years. Until then, work hard to become a great ninja..." With that, Misaru slowly rose to his feet and began to walk to the door.

"I will become a great ninja Misaru, you'll see!" Hiraku said the words just as Misaru walked through the door way.

"_I know you will kid..."_


	8. Chuunin ANBU?

**_Chapter 7: Chuunin ANBU?_**

::1 Week Later::

"So have you decided on my offer yet Hiraku?" Hiraku looked at the Hokage in front of him with a huge frown on his face.

"But I can beat some jounin ANBU in combat, why are you making me be only a chuunin that works as an ANBU? That's so unfair!" The Hokage sighed out loud as he heard the child's words.

"Hiraku, we both know that while your fighting skills are at the level of jounin, your battle making decisions, and intelligence has some growing to do before you are ready for the rank of jounin. Not to mention the fact that you still have some maturing to do..." The Hokage smiled as he watched the defeated boy nod with a frown on his face. Children never ceased to amaze him with their attitudes and personalities, and Hiraku was no exception.

"Fine Hokage, but I want to be promoted like next week or something." Hiraku gave the Hokage one last defiant glare before leaving the room and reporting to the ANBU headquarters. It seemed that Hiraku was going to have to follow under a special leader and do missions for him. Sighing, Hiraku walked opened the door to the headquarters and stepped inside.

The first thing that Hiraku noticed was that everyone in the room was wearing the same ANBU outfit, and wearing an animal mask of some sort. Wondering what king of mask he would get, Hiraku quickly walked up to a group of leader's at a desk and decided to report for "duty."

"Hi, my name is Hiraku, and I'm supposed to join an ANBU team. Can you tell me what I'm supposed to do?" At first the three ANBU at the desk didn't respond, but after several seconds the one in the center of the desk answered Hiraku.

"Yes, you're the boy ANBU who was just recruited. Anyway, I have you on the list, and I have decided that you'll be under the supervision of Leoung Ysung. He is among my top ANBU captains, so I expect you to do well under his supervision. You should find Ysung in the team four room on the right wall." Pointing at a door ten yards away, Hiraku politely bowed to the ANBU leader, and then left to the door and went inside the team four room.

Misaru was shocked to find that he was now inside of a large auditorium type room that had around six members in it at the moment, including one leader ANBU at the bottom of the stairs. Feeling his excitement grow, Hiraku quickly walked down the stairs and greeted the leader by giving his name.

"So you are my new "hot shot" recruit. Well, go over to the locker over there with your name on it and get your ANBU clothing on. Normally we would present you with a selection of masks, and you would pick one, but it seems a man named Misaru has already done that for you." Giving the man a big smile as he heard Misaru's name, Hiraku quickly walked over to his locker and opened it up. Inside he found an ANBU uniform that would fit him perfectly, and a falcon mask that had a not inside of it. Hiraku read the note to himself as he put on his ANBU uniform.

_Dear Hiraku,_

_Hiraku, it seems that you have chosen to join the ANBU, and I couldn't be any prouder of you for your decision. I myself was once an ANBU, and I can tell you right now that it won't be an easy life, but at the same time you will drastically improve all of your shinobi skills, and be protecting leaf village. I expect you to be very respectful to everyone you come in contact with while you are an ANBU, and that you will uphold all of the honorable behaviors that I have taught you. Never forget how proud I am of you._

_Misaru_

Hiraku felt tears form inside of his eyes as he finished the note, but the boy quickly wiped them away. He was sad that he was going to have to grow up quickly, but at the same time he was glad that his skills were now going to be very useful to many people. Smiling, Hiraku quickly put on the falcon mask that covered all of his face except for his hair and his eyes.

"Ysung, I'm ready for whatever you need me for." Hiraku said as he walked back over to were the rest of his ANBU group were gathered.

"Good, because I have a mission that I would life for you to go on tomorrow. In the mean time, I want you to come with me to the ANBU training grounds so I can get a feel for what skills you posses, and how you fight.

Nodding his agreement with Ysung's words, Hiraku followed the man as they left to the back of the ANBU headquarters where the training grounds were. Quickly passing all of the training equipment, the two shinobi soon found themselves in a sparring area that was covered in what appeared to be a natural forest environment.

"This area has been set up so that it perfectly resembles that of a normal forest area in fire country. Now, I want you to attack me with everything that you have, and make sure that you hold nothing back. I need to get a feel for how powerful you really are." Smiling, Hiraku activated his sharingan, surprised to find that Ysung didn't even flinch as he saw the bloodline appear in the boy's eyes.

Charging at the ANBU leader in a blaze of speed, Hiraku quickly began to send punch after punch at the older ANBU, forcing him to take the defensive. Feeling pretty cocky about his advantage, Hiraku jumped backwards several yards and formed hand seals while in the air. By the time the boy had landed, he had already finished the hand seals for his jutsu.

"Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Grand Fireball Skill)!" Hiraku blew out an extremely large blaze of flames at the older ANBU, forcing him to rapidly make hand seals so that he could create a counter jutsu.

"Doton Doryuuheki (Earth Rising Wall)!" Ysung spewed out a large amount of mud that quickly solidified just in time to create a wall hard earth. The flames then collided with the wall of mud, forcing it to melt, but did not manage to break through the wall.

"Very impressive jutsu Hiraku. That is one of my most powerful shield jutsu, and you just managed to destroy it. Too bad you have lost." With that Ysung imitated Hirakus Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu and blew out a large stream of flames of his own.

Hiraku only smiled and rapidly created several hand seals as he saw the jutsu come towards him.

"Doton Doryuuheki!" Ysung stared in shock as Hiraku perfectly imitated his own jutsu and created a earth barrier just strong enough to block the fire attack.

"Seems you underestimated my sharingan, that is not a mistake many live to talk about." Ysung then noticed for the first time that the boy had three dots in his right eye, and two in the other.

"_That boy is as close as he can get to the Mangekyou Sharingan without actually having it. This boy is far more impressive than I thought, Misaru must have trained him incredible hard to have him develop these fighting skills at such a young age."_ Waving his hand to signal to Hiraku that the fight was over, the older ANBU calmly walked over to the boy and pointed to the headquarters.

"I've finished my assessment of you. Go to your locker and put away your uniform and mask, and then you can go home. I expect to see you here at 3 a.m. tomorrow." With that Ysung walked away from the boy, leaving him to wonder what had just happened.


	9. ANBU or Murderer?

**_Chapter 8: ANBU or Murderer?_**

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Note: I have decided that in my story, the "bad" countries will be sound and lightning, and the "good" countries will be rock and fire. The rest will all be neutral.

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::The Next Day::

"Good, now that Hiraku is here, I can begin to tell you all what our mission for today is." Yawning inside of his ANBU mask, Hiraku silently hoped none of the other ANBUs heard him.

"The mission we are going to be taking on, will be taking us to the edge of our country where we'll be disposing of several sound-nins that have been confirmed to be in the area. We are to leave none of the sound nins alive, and we are to leave their bodies on the spot for our hunter nins to inspect. We believe at the moment that the group is only two squads of chuunin, but we all now how that could end up being false. Anyway, I believe that the eight members in our squad should be enough to handle this mission, so I want the squad to divide into two groups of four. I'll lead one group, and Noritu will lead the others. I expect us to have this mission done within two hours, now go!" The room was suddenly empty as the ANBUs moved at an incredible speed to their destination. In less than half an hour, the group of ANBUs were at the location where the sound nins were reported to be.

"Any idea where the sound nins could be at Ysung?" Hiraku suddenly felt Ysung smack him on the top of the head, and then felt Ysung pull his face so close that the masks were only an inch away from touching.

"You'll never again mutter a single ANBU members name during a mission. You'll also never again speak during a mission unless told to. Is that understood Falcon?" Hiraku nodded his head, and after a few moments Ysung released his mask. It seemed that while on missions the ANBU would refer to each other by their masks. Silently making a note of that, Hiraku knelt silently down next to Ysung.

"Falcon and Turtle, I want you two to go to the center of the clearing up ahead and be prepared to dodge attacks that will come at you from all directions." Watching as the Turtle member of their group stepped forward, Hiraku silently moved into the clearing where Ysung had directed him to go. Hiraku had barely arrived on the spot before barrages of kunais were hurled for him and the ANBU wearing the turtle mask.

Activating his Sharingan, Hiraku jumped high into air and spotted four sound nins hiding in the trees. Keeping his urge to shout out to the others about his discovery in check, Hiraku dove for the nearest sound nin while moving his hands rapidly to form hand seals for a jutsu.

"Kaze no Yaiba (wind blade)!" An invisible blade of wind suddenly appeared from Hiraku's fingers and he used it to cut the sound nin in half. Doing a back flip off of the tree to avoid a kunai that was thrown at him, Hiraku threw three kunais at his attacked before landing on the ground below. Hiraku felt his heart sink as he watched all three of his kunais hit with deadly accuracy.

By the time Hiraku was prepared to attack again, the rest of his squad had already taken out the sound nins he had seen, and four more. Walking grimly over to where his leader stood, Hiraku waited for further instructions.

"Nice quick work team, we will now report back to head quarters immediately. I have already alerted the hunter nin, and we are to be gone before they arrive." The group of ANBUs once again vanished without a trace and were at their headquarters within a half hour.

Hiraku then had to wait for another hour while their team was in the debriefing room with higher ranking ANBUs before he was allowed to go to his locker and leave for five hours before reporting back for afternoon training.

Sighing out loud once he arrived at his locker, Hiraku began to wonder if the life of an ANBU was for him. Today was the first day that he had been required to kill someone who wouldn't have directly harmed him if he hadn't seemed like a threat. It made him feel like he was the bad guy of the situation.

"Hiraku, can I talk to you for a moment?" Hiraku turned around to see Ysung sitting at the desk in the front of the room. Closing his locker, Hiraku quietly walked over to where his leader was sitting.

"Hiraku, you did what you had to do today when you killed those men." Hiraku felt slightly shocked at how well his leader had guessed what he had been thinking. He was about to ask how he knew, but then he was once again interrupted by his leader.

"All men who join the ANBU and aren't cold blooded killers always have the same problem when they first go out on missions. All other ninjas in our village, for the most part, only have to kill in life or death situations. We ANBU are required to kill almost by job description. Anyway, when you killed those men today, I just want you to realize something. In killing them, you prevented them from getting any closer to our village, where they would have been able to kill many of our people before we would have even been able to put up a defense. In killing them, you saved many more of our peoples lives. Remember that Hiraku." Nodding silently, Hiraku quickly left the ANBU headquarters and walked over to the apartment where he lived.

Hiraku walked over to his bed once he was inside of his one room apartment, and the fell right on top of it. In his head he was once again thinking about what he had done that day and what Ysung had told him. In the end, Hiraku decided that killing the way he had today was justified, if it meant saving more innocent lives. Feeling relieved after coming to the conclusion, Hiraku decided to sleep for the few hours he had left before he had to go back to the ANBU headquarters for training.


End file.
